Red Like Roses
by SamonandKwalt
Summary: Ruby was young when her mother died. She thought she had gotten over that. She is wrong, and now, her mothers ghost haunts her. With the aid her her team, Ruby sets out to discover the secret behind her mothers mysterious death, hoping to put an end, once and for all, to her terrible nightmares.


**AN**

**Hello all. Sorry about this, I know many people hate Authors notes, But I promise they will be few and far between (if I do any more notes at all). There are just a couple things I need to say, a couple thanks to give and credit where it is due. I am Johndoe040, Currently known as Kwalt and I am the primary author for this story. I am working with my friend Samon, aka Knight of the Void on this fanfic. He is My Co-author/Editor and has helped me a great deal with brainstorming. He has many great ideas and stories, you guys should check him out sometime. Now that the shameless promotion is out of the way, I just wanted to talk about the story. **

**There are many RWBY fanfics called "Red Like Roses". I don't intend for this story to be the same. Ever since Episode 8, "Players and Pieces", I have been obsessed with the song "Red Like Roses". Thank you Jeff and Casey for that, it is amazing the work you two did. Anyways, When the soundtrack was released, and we got the full version of the song, I just couldn't stop listening (still can't, actually). It was a song about the impossible conversation between a young girl, and her dead mother. I started getting ideas for a story, and started throwing them at Samon. So we agreed to work together to write this story. A story about a girl, haunted by the death of her mother and her quest to find the truth behind her death. We hope you enjoy our hard work and ideas. Please know, though, that since this is a fanfiction, these are our ideas and theories. So don't take them like they are canon, because they aren't. At least, not yet. **

**Special thanks to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum for RWBY, and a very special thanks to Jeff and Casey Lee Williams for their work on the soundtrack. **

PROLOGUE

"_Ruby"_

_ The wind blew furiously around the young girl as she walked through the white and red forest. Snow whipped her face, catching in her red hood. White Rose petals danced in the wind, which sang and shouted and echoed through the forest. The full moon glowed bright in the sky._

"_Ruby"_

_The young girl stopped, unsure if it was just her imagination, or something else. She felt a presence, a stirring sensation as if something were watching her._

"_Ruby... Ruby Rose..."_

_The wind began to pick up, and more and more rose petals began to blow around her. She drew the red machine off her back, and at the press of a button, it unfolded in into an enormous red scythe. She was ready for anything, as she knew these forests weren't safe, especially at this time of night._

"_Ruby Rose"_

_A large gust of wind hit her, blowing snow in her eyes, blinding her for a split second. When the snow cleared, she saw that the rose petals had collected in front of her, forming the shape a woman. The woman was a head taller than the young girl, and her face, although made of petals, was hidden by a hood. Snow blew behind the apparition, seemingly giving it a cape blowing in the wind. Ruby relaxed, feeling suddenly safe around this.. this ghost._

"_Ruby... I.. will... always... be wi-"_

_Suddenly, a large black hand swept at the unaware young girl, destroying the rose petals, and sending the red cloaked girl flying in to a tree. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Ruby watched as the petals and snow whipped the beast, tearing in to the Beowolf's black hide, until her eyes finally closed._

"_Mom... mom..."_

* * *

"Ruby!" The blonde haired girl shouted, shaking her younger sister awake. Ruby had been talking in her sleep again, as she had for the past few weeks.

"Yang, cut it out." The tired eyed leader of Team RWBY moaned, having been forced out of sleep.

"Finally you're awake. We have class soon. Get up!" Yang stepped back, letting her sister have some room to fully wake up. Blake and Weiss stood on the other side of the room, all three girls already in their brown and red uniforms. Ruby slowly sat up, wiping her eyes of sleep then hopped down from her makeshift top bunk.

"We'll wait outside. Hurry up and get dressed!" Yang said, and the three other girls left the room. Ruby could hear them talking to the members of Team JNPR, Jaune asking how Ruby was feeling. Did she really talk that loud? She had been having the same nightmare for weeks now.

Looking at the time, she rushed to get her uniform on, finally clipping the red cloak to her jacket with the cross shaped pins that Yang had given her for her tenth birthday. She looked up to Yang ever since her mother died. She wanted to be just like Yang: beautiful, smart, and strong.

They were young when their mother died. Ruby had just turned five only weeks before. She had received her first red cloak from her mother, which at the time had been much too big for her. But she wore it none the less because it was a gift from her mother. Since then, she had never gone anywhere without it.

Making some final adjustments to her uniform, Ruby grabbed her books, left the room. As they said, her team was waiting outside for their leader.

"You okay, Ruby?" asked Blake.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"You haven't been yourself for a while." said Weiss, slightly more content at the more serious attitude Ruby had been having for the past while.

"I haven't been sleeping well."

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Yang.

"Not really."

It was quiet the rest of the way to class, and throughout the lecture, Ruby couldn't get the image of the rose petal figure and the thought of her mother out of her mind. She didn't even notice Professor Port asking her about the physiology of an Ursa.

"Miss Rose?"

"Huh?" mumbled Ruby after being elbowed by Weiss.

"What is the easiest way to defeat an Ursa?"

"A.. uh.."

"Miss Rose, your attention in class has not been its norm. Is there something wrong?"

"No, professor. I just haven't been feeling well lately. The answer is from behind. The best way to beat an Ursa is from behind. Specifically the nape of its neck."

"Correct. Now, that concludes our class for today. You are all dismissed."

Everyone packed their books and began to leave the amphitheatre. Yang, Blake and Weiss got out before Ruby, who was having trouble with her cloak getting stuck in her chair.

"You guys go on ahead. We'll catch up." Said Yang, wanting to have a chat with her sister. She hadn't seen Ruby so out of it for years, she was always so upbeat and cheerful. A child at heart, but one who could be mature when she had to be. Which, when Yang thought about it, wasn't very often before coming to Beacon. She was proud of her younger sister, and hated seeing her so down. Finally, Ruby got her red cape unstuck from the chair and was on her way out the door. Everyone had already left the area, even the professor.

"Ruby."

"What, Yang?"

"Come on, I know something is wrong."

"I don't want to talk about it, Yang."

"Ruby, We NEED to talk about it. We need our leader, and right now, she needs her sister. Come on, let's go for a walk."

The blonde girl lead her younger sister out to the courtyard, and out on to one of the many gardens that dotted the front of Beacon Academy. They sat down on a stone bench in silence for a couple minutes. Leaves blew around in the cool air. Birds chirped and crickets sang. Finally, Ruby sighed.

"Yang, do you ever think of Mom?"

"What?"

"Do you remember much about her?"

"Yeah. You know, I think about her all the time. Why?"

"Those... dreams that I have been having? They've been about her."

"I kinda figured. So what happens in them?"

"It was that night a few years ago during holiday break. When you found me in the woods. I saw something that night."

"What did you see?"

"I don't know. The wind was blowing, and I had snow in my eyes, but I swear, I saw.. mom."

"How is that possible?"

"It, wasn't really her though. It was a bunch of petals, rose petals in the shape of a person. I think it tried to talk to me."

"You were young. I don't think that it would be possible. Mom died. There is no way she could come back, as much as we would wish her to."

"I know, Yang. I just, I don't know. I really miss her."

"I know, Ruby. I miss her too, more than you can imagine. But, she would be proud of us. Proud of you. You got in to Beacon, two years early! You're fulfilling your dream. You're becoming a huntress, just like her. Wherever she is, she's happy that you're alive and wanting to protect others. Every time you put on that cloak, every time you think about her, you are honoring her memory. You shouldn't let that bring you down. Your memory of her should give you strength. Now, come on. Everyone is probably getting worried."

"Okay. And Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"No problem. What are sisters for?"

* * *

The two girls then returned to the cafeteria and sat with Team JNPR and the rest of their own team. The feeling of concern was in the air, which, thankfully to Ruby, Yang managed to clear quickly. The rest of the day, Ruby had no problems. Yang had managed to cheer her up, and she felt better than ever. Her next class was combat practice. Team RWBY, along with many of the other teams would pair up and challenge each other to duels. Ruby had never lost yet. The duels were intended to be simply practice, tournament style fights. Almost anything went: you were to battle your opponent, and the person at whose aura dropped too low lost. Ruby had an advantage to the other students she had faced: her semblance. She could move faster than any other student at Beacon Academy. That, matched with her skill at using Crescent Rose, her High Calibre Sniper Scythe, she was virtually untouchable but to a select few. She was hoping that today would be no different.

Professor Glynda Goodwitch was the teacher and referee of the class. She paired everyone up to different partners, one at a time, so everyone could watch, and learn from everyone else. So far, the matches had been simply one against one. But today, Professor Goodwitch decided to do things differently. Today, teams would fight against teams.

"What?!" Sounds of confusion were echoed through the arena-like room.

"You heard right. Today, we will be testing team fighting. It's fine that you can fight alone against others, but you have all been put in to teams for a reason. Now it's time to learn how to work together, Use every strength and weakness to help you and your team fight together without hurting or even killing each other in the field."

"Makes sense" Whispered Yang.

"So, who will be fighting who?" came a yell form somewhere near the back of the room.

"Today there shall be three fights. I will call the teams up, and they will fight until either everyone on a team has fallen, or they exceed twenty minutes."

Goodwitch called up the first two teams. Teams AMBR and SWRD were first to fight. The fight lasted a good ten minutes of solid combat. During which Team AMBR used their long distance fighting styles to overwhelm team SWRD. Team SWRD managed to overcome the oppositions advantage by building a defensive wall using their shields to gain the distance, managing to get close enough to make a hit.

Both teams fought well, but Team AMBR came out victorious only losing one member verses the full team defeat of SWRD. Next pair to go up was Team CRDL and Team LTRN. Team CRDL had no ability to work together, each one going off on their own, and then each one being overrun four to one. The match was quick, lasting only five minutes as Cardin Winchester fell to his knees, the curved blade of a sickle resting around his neck. Team CRDL walked out of the arena angrily, glaring at everything in their path. Goodwitch then called up the final two teams.

"The next and final match will be Team JNPR verses Team RWBY."

"Well, I guess it's finally time." Pyrrah smiled as her and the rest of JNPR made their way to the arena. Nora was bouncing with excitement. She could never sit still for too long.

"Don't hold back on us now." Jaune called over to Ruby.

"Never even passed my mind." She yelled back.

Professor Goodwitch gave the signal and the match began. Both teams stood with weapons poised, waiting for someone to make the first move.

Finally, Nora made the first move, launching herself at the opposing team and bringing Magnhild crashing down, scattering them. As the smoke cleared she came into view again, in the center of a large crater. Ruby landed lightly on her feet and brought Crescent Rose to bear, preparing to take a shot at Nora. Pyrrah, Using Nora as a distraction, launched herself at Ruby, swinging Miló in its sword form, only to be blocked by Weiss, and the two of them leapt off somewhere else.

Yang noticed Jaune tracking Pyrrah and Weiss' movements and charged him, Jaune noticing just in time and bringing his shield between Ember Celica and his face. Yang grinned, knowing that she could still punch Jaune's block off regardless of whether there was a shield in the way. Then she suddenly her gauntlets clanged together and refused to move, as if stuck together, effectively binding her arms and allowing Jaune to escape.

_'Pyrrah!'_

Pyrrah hid behind her shield, Akoúo, blocking Weiss' blows while concentrating on her semblance, magnetizing Yang's Ember Celica together to allow Jaune to escape. Once she was sure he had regrouped himself, she let go of her semblance and drew Miló, beginning her counterattack against Weiss.

Blake threw Gambol Shroud at Ren, who was running to back Nora up, in an attempt to slow him while Ruby continued her onslaught on Nora. She emptied her entire clip at her, who blocked all but the last shot, getting blasted back a few feet.

Nora then launched herself at Ruby, bringing Magnhild down again. Ruby dodged, disappearing in a flash of roses, appearing behind the hammer wielding girl, swinging her scythe at Nora's legs. Nora fell to the ground, which gave Ruby a second to think things through.

The point of the exercise was to work together. So far, her team was separated, each fighting her own fight. They needed to work together to win this match.

Ruby took too much time to think and failed to notice Ren flying towards her. The green clad man delivered a sharp kick to Ruby's center, knocking her to the ground, before Blake caught up to him and the two leaped off together. Yang looked over to her sister, who Nora was about to pound her through the floor. Blasting Jaune away, Yang launched herself at Nora, sending the girl flying.

"We need to work together or else we won't win this." Ruby pointed out as she leapt to her feet.

"I agree. Watch out!" Ruby ducked as Jaune swung at her with his sword. Yang blasted him back and, with the distraction, Ruby swung at him, catching his side and throwing him across the arena into Ren, who was using the blades of StormFlower to block Blake's Gambol Shroud katana form. The two boys sprawled on the floor in a daze, Yang and Blake standing over them. They could see that the boys wouldn't be down for long. The two girls prepared to finish them off, until a thought crept into Blake's mind.

_'Where's Weiss?'_

That was when they heard the sound of Weiss' glyphs. They looked up the see the pale girl sending various elemental streams towards the red haired warrior. Pyrrah managed to block most of them with Akoúo, then transformed Miló into a carbine, shooting back at Weiss. Weiss landed on the ground and was almost caught by the shots if it weren't for Yang, Ruby and Blake intercepting them, blocking the shots, then blasting back some shots of her own. By that time, the rest of Team JNPR had recovered, and launched a new assault on Team RWBY.

The four girls stood in a circle, back to back, each facing a different attacker. Ruby looked around, trying to spot who was going to move first. Unexpectedly, they all moved at the same time, each lunging at the four girls. The girls defended as much as they could, but they were being overpowered.

JNPR was clearly better at team fighting than RWBY. One person would attack one opening, which would be blocked and creating another opening for someone else to take. Ruby thought this was a brilliant tactic, and she would try to incorporate it in the her style later. But for now...

"We need to separate them!" she yelled at her team as JNPR regrouped and attacked again. She knew that they could win one on one.

Once again, Nora attacked first, leaping into the air and bearing Magnhild down on them. Ruby was about to jump away until Yang yelled "I've got her!"

The yellow haired girl then jumped straight towards Nora, letting out a cry as her fist met her hammer head on. The force of both weapons stopped them in their tracks, but Yang wasn't done. with her other hand, she grabbed Magnhild and heaved it with all her might across the field, taking Nora with it.

Ren ran to help her but Gambol Shroud wrapped around his leg and Blake yanked him towards her. She then switched to her dual- blade form as Ren brandished his StormFlower.

Ruby disappeared into a flurry of petals and attacked Pyrrah from behind, and the two exploded in to a flurry of flying sparks and gunshots. Jaune began to run and help Pyrrah, but then the floor he stepped on turned to ice and he slid off his feet towards the point of Weiss' Myrtenaster.

The air around Yang and Nora ignited again as the two girls unleashed explosive attacks left and right. Finally Yang feinted a punch at Nora's stomach, only to grab Magnild by the shaft and wrench it from her hands.

To anyone watching the fight, all they saw was brief blurs of black and green as Blake and Ren fought at their top agility abilities, their movement sweeping a small twister of dust around them. When the dust finally settled, Blake lay strewn on the ground, unmoving, and Ren standing over her, panting with his hands leaning on his knees and looking like he was about to fall over himself. Then he raised his head just in time to see Yang deliver her final knockdown blow on Nora.

Yang looked down at Nora's body to make sure she was done. As she turned to help the rest of her team, she barely registered the green flashes in front of her. She raised her gauntlets and blocked the small projectiles that assaulted her, but then felt a sharp strike hit her in the back. She spun around, but only saw a streak of green as another blow hit her behind her knee, causing her to stumble. Yang spun around time and time again, each time failing to land a blow, each time another strike hitting her somewhere else. Eventually she had taken as much as she could and fell forward. Ren stopped to make sure Yang wouldn't get up again, then closed his eyes and fell over backwards, utterly spent.

Ruby may have won every match she had ever fought, but she had never gone up against Pyrrah before. The two girls fought with everything they had: Projectiles, blades and Semblance. Very early on, Ruby realized that Pyrrah's shield gave her a defensive advantage, and was slowly but surely taking control of the fight. Ruby made another strike at Pyrrah, only to have her blade slowdown due to Pyrrah's mastery of polarity, and the strike slid harmlessly off Akoúo. Sensing the red haired girls retaliation, Ruby fired her rifle, using the recoil to carry her away from Pyrrah.

But Pyrrah must have anticipated this and she threw Akoúo like a discus with all her might at Ruby, the metal shield, aided by a newfound magnetism to Crescent Rose, flying directly at Ruby. Ruby brought her scythe up the defend herself, but just before Akoúo collided with her, a large white snowflake appeared in front of her, deflecting the shield.

Ruby looked behind her to see Weiss running towards her, away from a very frozen Jaune. She also noticed that the other members of both teams were down, leaving it Ruby and Weiss versus Pyrrah.

Ruby's eyes narrowed. It was two against one now. They could do this.

"Weiss, grab my arm."

"What?"

"Just do it!" Weiss did so, and Ruby aimed her weapon at the ground and fired, launching herself and Weiss in to the air and out of Pyrrah's onslaught. The red clad girl watched this, and like a predator, stalked her prey.

She attacked the two girls, causing them to separate. Weiss was behind Pyrrah, while Ruby was in front, currently the target. Ruby looked over the red-heads shoulder, and immediately, Weiss understood. This was their chance to take Pyrrah out. They would attack together, at the same time and overpower the powerful warrior.

Ruby began her charge, readying Crescent Rose. But suddenly, the wind picked up. A voice whispered to her, calling her name.

"Ruby." The wind blew behind Pyrrah, and there stood a woman in a white cloak. Her face darkened by her hood, she looked up at Ruby, her silver eyes, which almost glowed white, catching the young girls. She called Ruby's name and reached out her hand.

Pyrrah seemed to have read in Ruby eyes that there was someone behind her, so she triggered Miló's transformation, its hilt extending into the shaft of a javelin, the butt striking the cloaked figure dead center in the stomach. As the figure fell, the cloak disintegrated into rose petals revealing the body of Weiss. Ruby's eyes widened as her falter allowed to hit her in the face with Akoúo, sending her sprawling to the ground, Pyrrah landing on top of her with Miló pointed directly at her face.

The room lit back to its normal brightness, and Professor Goodwitch came on to the arena, her scroll in the crook of her arm.

"Well done, Team JNPR. Excellent to see that at least one team understands how to work together. Team RWBY, while you were smart to attempt to pay to your advantage, your teamwork is still sorely lacking. We will need to work on some team building exercises next week. That concludes our class for today. Dismissed."

* * *

The girls returned to their dorm, a dark cloud hanging over their heads. Ruby was upset. She heard her mother's voice again. Was it ever going to stop?

Weiss was angry with Ruby. They could have won the fight, but their leader had hesitated.

Blake was confused. She agreed with Weiss, but she could see that there was something disturbing Ruby.

Yang was the most upset. Not with her team, but because she thought that she had solved her sisters problem. She thought that her sister had come to terms with their mothers death. Now, it seemed she was worse than ever. Yang felt helpless, because it was her job to help her younger sister, yet there was apparently nothing she could do.

As the night fell, the others went to sleep. Ruby lay in her bed, but she didn't want to sleep. She didn't want to have that dream again. She hated feeling so sad all the time. She hopped off her bunk and went for a walk. Maybe if she gave it time, she would be able to sleep without seeing her mother's ghost in her dreams.


End file.
